1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a washing/drying machine including an accommodating chamber in which things to be washed are accommodated and in which washing and drying of the things to be washed are executed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been provided a washing/drying machine for automatically performing washing to drying in an accommodating chamber in which things to be washed are accommodated. The washing/drying machine performs a washing operation having a plurality of different steps such as washing, rinsing, and spin-drying steps, and a drying operation for drying the things to be washed spin-dried in the steps.
Here, in the drying operation, an electric heater or a gas combustion heater has heretofore been used as a heat source. After heating outside air by the electric heater or the gas combustion heater to obtain high-temperature air, the air is blown into the accommodating chamber in which the things to be washed are accommodated, and the things to be washed in the accommodating chamber are dried. Moreover, the high-temperature air in the accommodating chamber, by which the things to be washed have been dried, is exhausted to the outside.
However, when the drying operation is performed using the electric heater, the gas combustion heater or the like, moisture-containing outside air at a low temperature outside the accommodating chamber is used in the high-temperature air blown into the accommodating chamber, and therefore a long time is required until the things to be washed dry. Therefore, there have been problems that energy consumption for drying things to be dried increases and energy costs such as electricity and gas cost rise remarkably.
To solve the problem, a washing/drying machine has also been developed in which a heating pump constituted of a compressor, a heating coil, an expansion valve, and a cooling coil and capable of circulating a heat exchange medium is used, the things to be washed are dried by the high-temperature air heated by the heating coil, and moisture evaporated from the washed things is coagulated and discarded by the cooling coil (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-99299).
By the use of the heating pump, it can be expected that a time required for drying the things to be washed is shortened and energy efficiency is raised, but there has been an earnest demand for improvement of a relative efficiency of an operation including the washing operation in the washing/drying machine which executes both the washing operation and the drying operation in the accommodating chamber.